Palestine, Israel and the U.S. Empire

Palestine, Israel and the U.S. Empire provides a sharp analysis of historic and current events in the struggle for Palestine—from the division of the Middle East by Western powers and the Zionist settler movement, to the founding of Israel and its regional role as a watchdog for U.S. interests, to present-day conflicts and the prospects for a just resolution.

The book’s narrative is firmly rooted in the politics of Palestinian liberation. Here is a necessary introduction to the heroic efforts of the Palestinian people to achieve justice in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

JOEL KOVEL: OVERCOMING ZIONISM

Born in 1936 in Brooklyn of Ukrainian Jewish parents, Joel Kovel is the author of 10 books and over 100 articles

Describing himself as an "eco-socialist," in 1998 he was the Green party candidate for Senator from New York

Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly journal, Capitalism Nature Socialism

Overcoming Zionism, advocating "a single democratic state in Israel/Palestine, he demolishes Zionism from historical, political, cultural, environmental, ethical, and psychological perspectives. Zionism seeks "the restoration of tribalism in the guise of a modern, highly militarized and aggressive state. It "fell into the ways of imperialist expansion and militarism, and showed signs of the fascist malignancy
"if you sign on to the idea of a Jewish state, you are taking the particularism that is the potential bane of any state, mixing it with the exceptionalism that is the actual bane of Judaism, and giving racism an objective, enduring, institutionalized and obdurate character

Niels Harrit, on nano-thermite

SPAIN

General Franco imposed by Hitler and Mussolini, Spanish Republic during the years 1936–1939.

possibility, land reform, educational reform, public pension refor, trade unionism

groups opposed to these reforms carried out a military coup. Spain’s popular classes defend the Republic but lack of arms

The West did not lift a finger, afraid reform would “contaminate” their own popular classes

More than 200,000 executed, another 200,000 died in concentration camps 114,266 people, disappeared

until 1978, repression was a constant, apologists such as Juan Linz denied
fascist totalitarian, defined it as authoritarian. It was a nationalism based
on a special race

transition in 1978 carried out on terms favorable to the right-wing led by the king

Amnesty Law, immunity for all. Pact of Silence from all political parties, 114,266 disappeared remained disappeared.

three years ago, the grandchildren started looking. There were people who knew where. in this “model” transition, the right-wing forces still held enormous power

new law, The Law of Historical Memory. socialists have done little, afraid
the monarchy, the Army, and the Church) that insists on Pact of Silence and the Amnesty Law.

Enter Judge Garzon who tried to take General Pinochet to court. Under pressure recovery of historical memory. Pinochet was a boy scout compared with Franco. Judge Garzon called for inquiry. hold tribunals, the repression was even broader and deeper than previously known

reactionary forces mobilized, took Judge Garzon to the Supreme Court. Supreme Court, Judge Varela saw merit in their request. Amnesty Law
gave permanent immunity. Judge Varela’s indictment exposing all the political and judicial systems to the criticism

Judge Varela wants to prevent Judge Garzon, will reveal a pact of silence

The initial work done by Judge Garzon has already proved. United Nations Human Rights Law, Article 15.2 “crimes against humanity” cannot be silenced by
Amnesty Law

And the “official” international media remain silent.

JOE STACK AND PAUL GOODMAN

“When the wealthy fuck up,” writes Stack, “the poor get to die for the mistakes.”

“two interpretations for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us.”

corporate socialism,

Corporations marred by their own stupidity and greed get bail-outs, writes Stack, while healthcare companies plunder the ranks of the sick and the dying for profit

the “vulgar and corrupt” Catholic Church as a “monster of organized religion” that grows inordinately wealthy exploiting religious tax exemptions.

IRS, a gigantic system of wealth transfer that keeps alive a government which ably represents its corporate handlers but coldly calculates the length and breadth of the shaft for its citizens

a government that has allowed bigness oligopolies to take the dominant position in just about every major sector of the economy (in banking, finance, food production, energy, defense, steel, pharmaceuticals, airlines, and media), while institutionalizing unfairness for the small man

echoes of Paul Goodman, the author and anarchist and one of the great unsung thinkers of our time

“one interlocked system of big government, big corporations, big municipalities, big labor, big education, and big communication, in which all of us are pretty regimented and brainwashed, and in which direct initiative and deciding have become difficult or impossible.”

[that] politics is essentially a matter of ‘getting into power,’ and then ‘deciding,’ directing, controlling, coercing, the activities of society”
centralization and bigness remain the norm

MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Dwight Eisenhower, "military-industrial complex."

he was telling us that U.S. decisions to fight wars may not be motivated just by defense of the United States

Why does the United States have over 700 military installations around the world (and growing)? Does it have THAT many enemies?

Why are U.S. military expenditures year after year equal to ALL other military expenditures of ALL other nations in the world?

Why has the United States been the number-one arms dealer in the world for the past decades?

military-industrial complex

CPAC AND JUSTIN RAIMUNDO

Wait for it...

...And here it is. Greenwald was first, but he must write on the weekend. Here is the voice of right wing libertarianism in the flesh.

I used to hate these guys. While I don't disagree with their historical analysis, their praxis is only a few steps up the evolutionary ladder from the John Birchers. Now, I root for them.

The first step is rounding up all the neocons war criminals and putting them in a "Nuremberg docket". Hang 12 of them in one night, Limbaugh first.

Then we can fight income distribution with these guys.

• anti-interventionist foreign policy as the key to reining in big government

• Invoking the shade of Robert A. Taft, and wondering aloud how we’re going to pay for our empire

• traced the roots of our dilemma back to Woodrow Wilson

• Paul realizes that the whole kit-n-kaboodle of progressivism culminated in US involvement in the Great War

We didn’t hear Beck own up to the essentially Wilsonian foreign policy of the Bush administration.

It warmed the cockles of my libertarian heart to hear Ron Paul mentioned Eugene Victor Debs raised as a martyr to the cause of individual rights. It was a Republican, Warren G. Harding – who finally freed Debs. Ron truly is the anti-Cheney

Paul’s CPAC victory is a stunning repudiation of the War Party’s (read Neocon) long-standing dominance of the GOP

Let it be so.

ARGHANISTAN'S OUTSOURCED WAR

Here is a great article from Le Monde diplomatique but found at Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

Afghanistan’s outsourced war by Marie-Dominique Charlier

A British contractor said recently that the Americans, the British and other armed forces were in Afghanistan to win the war, but for his firm, the more the security situation deteriorated the better


A worrying two-thirds of the Pentagon’s personnel in Afghanistan are private military contractors, unaccountable to military law or ethics, swaggeringly overbearing, and not in any hurry to help improve the poor security situation that assures their firms’ current and future profits

There is a convergence of financial interests between the PMCs and big US industrial conglomerates: most PMCs have been bought up by conglomerates through mergers and acquisitions, many since 2001.

Xe (Blackwater), DynCorp, MPRI (Military Professional Resources Inc) and Kellog Brown and Root (4), are all part of a grouping known as Private Security Companies of Afghanistan. interrogators and interpreters in the Abu Ghraib were recruited CACI International or Titan

This reality is so totally fubar'd, its hard to know where to start.

Mass Casualties:

Thursday 18 February 2010

by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Review
"Mass Casualties": The Dark Underbelly of Occupation, an Army Medic's Account

Thursday 18 February 2010
an insider's scathing testimony of an ongoing illegal and unethical military action in a distant, once-sovereign state, by the US

The late historian and Author Howard Zinn held the book in high regard. "Michael Anthony's memoir is not about the politics of Iraq. Instead it takes us deep inside the war, inside and outside the operation room, the barracks, the talk of the soldiers, the feeling of the situation ... unique and powerful," Zinn wrote.
If for nothing else, "Mass Casualties" gains immense importance in its honest portrayal of a young soldier's vulnerability as he struggles hard to cope with his shattered illusion about the Army

GOLDWATER HAD ONE THING RIGHT

I believe what Barry Goldwater believed in 1994:

When you say "radical right" today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye.

I stand with Goldwater when he declared:

"Every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass."

NOAM CHOMSKY

IT LOOKS LIKE CONTROLLED DEMOLITION

WEALTH DISTRIBUTION - 20's LEVELS

What a time to be an oligarch! All I wanted to do was vomit when I saw this.

Folks, there is no way we can have economic prosperity in this country when the top 1% has all of the money. The middle class is basically being destroyed right in front of our very eyes. Consumption economies die when the consumers have no money to consume!

I see growing signs of desperation and anger as the wealth of this nation continues to get transferred to the elite of this nation.

ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS

Will announce a decisive milestone today, more than 1,000 worldwide architects and engineers now support the call for a new investigation

The press conference will be held concurrently in 38 cities in 6 countries

We are therefore calling for a grand jury investigation of NIST official

Other disturbing facts
# Complete destruction of both Twin Towers in just 10 to 14 seconds at near free-fall acceleration
# Over 100 first-responder reports of explosions and flashes at onset of destruction
# Multi-ton steel sections ejected laterally 600 ft at 60 mph
# Mid-air pulverization of 90,000 tons of concrete & metal decking
# 1200-foot-dia. debris field: no "pancaked" floors seen in the debris pile
# Several tons of molten metal found in debris.
# Evidence of advanced explosive nano-thermitic composite material found in the WTC dust by an international team of scientists

The implications are enormous and may have profound impact on the forthcoming Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial

GOVERNMENTS ADMIT THEY CARRY OUT FALSE FLAG ATTACKS

The German people were whipped up into a state of hysteria and fear, because they thought they were under attack by Poles and other "bad guys". The Germans were in shock, and rallied around their "strong" leader (it wasn't just the bad economy). Without first exposing the truth that the attacks were false flag attacks - which were largely the source and root cause of the German people's fears, and which allowed the German parliament and other institutions to hand Hitler total power - the sweeping away of good political causes by the wave of fear could not be stopped.



Moreover, the Nazis might have been derailed and perhaps brought to justice well before the Nuremberg trials if the false flag hoaxes had been exposed at the time. The German people could have been spared from the horrors inflicted on their nation and the world by the Nazis. And sanity and positive political changes might have prevailed in 1940's-era Germany.

ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEER FOR 911 TRUTH

1044 architectural and engineering professionals
and 6673 other supporters including A&E students
have signed the petition demanding of Congress
a truly independent investigation.

GO ASK ALICE, I THINK SHE'LL KNOW

What do all these people have in common?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17688

1. Jason Chafetz, Utah Congressman
2. Bob Graham, Co-Chair of the Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 and former Head of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
3. Patrick Leahy, Democratic U.S. Senator
4. Ron Paul, Republican Congressman
5. Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Congressman
6. Mike Gravel, Former Democratic Senator
7. Lincoln Chaffee, Former Republican Senator
8. Dan Hamburg, Former U.S. Democratic Congressman
9. Curt Weldon, Former U.S. Republican Congressman and senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, and who served six years as the Chairman of the Military Research and Development Subcommittee
10. Lee Hamilton, Co-chair 911 Commission
11. Timothy Roemerm 9/11 Commissioner
12. Max Cleland, 9/11 Commissioner
13. Bob Kerrey, 9/11 Commissioner
14. John Farmer, Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission
15. Lynne Larkin, CIA Operations Officer who co-chaired a CIA multi-agency task force coordinating intelligence efforts among many intelligence and law enforcement agencies
16. Daniel Ellsberg, Former military analyst and famed whistleblower
17. Raymond McGovern, 27-year CIA veteran, chaired National Intelligence Estimates, delivered intelligence briefings to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush,
18. William Bill Christison, 29-year CIA veteran, former National Intelligence Officer, former Director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political Analysis
19. David Steele, 20-year Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer, the second-ranking civilian in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence, and former CIA clandestine services case officer
20. Robert Baer, decorated 20-year CIA veteran
21. Melvin Goodman, Division Chief of the CIA’s Office of Soviet Affairs, who served as Senior Analyst from 1966 - 1990. He also served as Professor of International Security at the National War College from 1986 - 2004,
22. Major John M. Newman, PhD, U.S. Army, Professor of History and International Relations, University of Maryland. Former Executive Assistant to the Director of the National Security Agency, former military attaché in China, with a 21-year career in U.S. Army Intelligence
23. General Wesley Clark, U.S. General, Commanding General of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe
24. Morton Goulder, Former Deputy Secretary for Intelligence and Warning under Nixon, Ford, and Carter,
25. Edward L. Peck, former Deputy Director to the White House Task Force on Terrorism
26. J. Michael Springmann, former US Department of State Foreign Service Officer
27. Lt. Col. Jeff Latas, President of the U.S. Air Force Accident Investigation Board, who also served as Pentagon Weapons Requirement Officer and as a member of the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review
28. Col. Ronald D. Ray, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan
29. Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI

THE TIPPING POINT

Canada's Permafrost Has Moved North 80 Miles in Past 50 Years
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 02.18.10
Science & Technology (science)

Writing in the journal Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, the scientists also say that permafrost is in an advanced state of deterioration as far north as the 55th parallel.

Stored Methane Emissions Increasing

methane is a more potent greenhouse gas. The fear is that a tipping point will be reached and vast stores of methane will be released in a relatively short time period as the permafrost melting trend continues.

FROM INFORMED CONSENT

Meanwhile, the main strategy of the Israeli and Jewish-American Right to preserve Israeli capacity to continue the colonization and to act belligerently in the region had been the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. That strategem has failed, as I argued in Salon. The Shiite fundamentalists who have taken over Baghdad are pro-Hizbullah and pro-Palestinian. (Hizbullah was in part set up by the Islamic Mission Party, Da'wa, of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and Da'wa supported Hamas in the recent Gaza War). Moreover, Baghdad has ceased helping contain Iran for the Sunni Arab world and the West, and is now a close ally of Tehran. The prospect of a well-armed, 250,000-man Iraqi army now being reconstituted, and riddled with agents of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, must be a matter of consternation for Israelis. Only Jordan separates them from Iraq, now an outpost of the Shiite religious parties allied with Khamenei. The Neoconservatives, such as Richard Perle, David Frum, Paul Wolfowitz, Irv Lewis Libby, Michael Rubin, Douglas Feith, John Bolton, Larry Franklin and others thus not only shot themselves in the foot, but they shot Israel in the chest.

This Iraq strategy, which intended to stop the Rabin peace process and prevent the return of Gaza and the West Bank to the Palestinians for their state, was laid out by Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and other Neoconservatives in a white paper for Bibi Netanyahu in 1996. Many of the authors were subsequently put in high office by Bush-Cheney and pushed for an American war on Iraq with dirty tricks and false propaganda in 2002-2003. They included Canadian gadfly journalist David Frum, who authored Bush's 2002 'Axis of Evil' speech in consultation with Perle. The mostly Jewish Neoconservatives were only one faction in the Bush-Cheney coalition that wanted regime change in Baghdad, which included the Christian Right, Big Oil, and the military-industrial complex. However influential, they were not 'in control' and most Jewish Americans opposed their ideas and policies.